Earlier this month, Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, traveled to Cuba, where he was invited by Fidel Castro himself to discuss a recent article he had written focusing on Iran's nuclear program. 

During his visit, Goldberg interviewed the ex-president and at one point asked him if Cuba's economic system was still something worth exporting to other countries, and Castro's answer has raised eyebrows all over the world. 

Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore."

Goldberg wrote the statement on his Atlantic Blog immediately after it was stated. 

But a couple of days later, the former Cuban leader said that the U.S. journalist had misinterpreted the comment.

Goldberg has said that he did quote Castro accurately. Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, also confirmed Castro's comment, which was made at a private lunch she and Goldberg had with the ex-president.

Castro has said that he is amused to see that Goldberg took what he said literally when in fact he had actually meant the complete opposite, that capitalism no longer works for the United States or the world in general. 

The 84-year-old ex-president, has been out of the media spotlight for the last four years and just recently reappeared in July to discuss and the emerging threat of a nuclear war with Iran. 

Ivette Gómez, a Spanish professor at the University of Southern California and a Cuban immigrant, believes that Castro's flip-flopping comment is just "a way for him to come back into the spotlight." 

"All Castro wants is attention. He is 84-years-old and has been out of the media for a long time. By making this comment and being in his army uniform, he is grabbing the viewers attention once again," Gómez said. 

Roberto Díaz, the chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at USC and a Cuban immigrant, said he believes that Castro is "trying to recreate himself."

Díaz added that he thinks capitalism could help Cubans.

"Cubans are well educated and so, they can find a way to transition into a market economy since the population is supposed to be 100 percent literate," he said. "They need to create a structure for foreign investment, and a system that can do well. Cubans can be very good capitalist."

At the moment, Cuba is having economic troubles and on Monday it was announced that "at least" half a million state workers will be laid off over the ext six months but at the same time jobs will be created in private sectors.

The new plan to help the Cuban economy is President Raul Castro's confirmation to follow through with his pledge to cut off about one million state jobs, which will be around a fifth of workers in Cuba, in a shorter amount of time. 

The government runs about 90 percent of Cuba’s economy.

 

To reach reporter Cynthia Balderas, click here.

Follow Cynthia on Twitter: @CVBalderas